Restless Robin

Yesterday Robin was unable to sit still. She doesn't have all lot of energy to begin with and she hasn't been sleeping well, but her body feels very unsettled so all day long she shuffled from one room to another in slow motion, cleaning up small items, making the bed in the morning. (She looks like a Buddhist monk shuffling through the house in slow motion and sporting a shaved head.)

This morning I found her on the couch in the living room still trying to sleep with a "hello kitty" blanket pulled right up to her chin. She would say something to me and then her eyes would begin to close and her jaw would begin to relax. Then a new thought would come to her, and her eyes would slowly start to open, she'd lick her lips and she would say something more. It was like watching a toy doll whose batteries had run too low. After a couple of minutes she was struck with another round of dry heaves. Usually she gets three to five heaves in a row then settles down. This time she had about a dozen. On the last one it sounded like she was just about to start crying - as if one more dry heave would break her spirit. She took her anti-nausea meds just two hours ago so there is no more medication to help her this morning. We put her to bed upstairs and I hope she can eventually sleep today.

This past week she had asked the oncologist if the future chemo would be easier. She will still receive chemo every 21 days, but in the future she will only get a three hour drip of Cisplatin and not the 96 hours of 5FU. He noted that the Cisplatin generally creates the worst side effects, but she is getting heavy doses of each chemical so next time *it has to be easier*.

Well, it seems this weekend she will not complete a walk around the block. I guess we'll just focus on getting her to walk part way down the street as soon as we can.